So, immediately after work on Tuesday, we embarked on our voyage through 4 states in the new Murano. Facing 12 hours of road, we decided on driving as far as we could that night, sleep for a few hours at a rest stop, and get to Lake powell early the next morning.

Somehow, we made the leg to Vegas in 4 hours with just enough time to catch 3 of the Bellagio’s fountain shows.  A wonderful rest stop! In the 100 degree heat, we walked down the strip, navigating the masses with Zoë and finding a choice spot of grass along side the lake in front of Bellagio.  4 hours of Dr. Pepper and bottles of water and amazing water shows make for seemingly tiny bladders, so we took turns playing with the zoester and jetted into the casino for a quick freshen up.  I quickly got entranced by the shiny lights and found myself aimlessly entering a $5 bill into a slot machine…2 pulls later and I was $10 richer! Bonus.  Nothing to write home about, but enough to make me cash out and run to Jessica bragging that I gambled in the Bellagio and won….won a whole bag of chips worth of money for the road! Score!

Even at midnight, on a random Tuesday, the streets were packed with people.

And so we pressed on, traversing the American southwest at 80 mph in relative darkness.  We made it as far as St. George Utah before the tooth picks holding my eyelids open snapped and we were forced to pull over and sleep in a wal-mart parking lot.  Gotta love the evil-machines willingness to overcompensate for their greed by letting weary travelers sleep for a free night in their parking lot.

We awoke a few hours later to a Utah sunrise. A beautiful sight.

McDonalds in stomach, caffeine in handwe pressed on towards Page, AZ through my absolute most favorite part of the American roadscape.

The Murano was a champ, floating us along in stylish comfort all at 23 mpg!

The approach to Powell.

Water in sight and the first half of our journey was near it’s end.

Zoë smelling the freedom that awaited her furry little paws, bladder and who knows what else excites that dog, but she was stoked, to say the least.

My brother and sister picked us up on our speed boat for the week and ferried us off to my parents and nephews awaiting us aboard the S.S. Gatley.  We packed so much crap for the trip that we weighed down our poor little speed boat and what took my bro and sis an hour previously, took us about 3 to get back.  But not a stretch of road for as far as the eye could see, so even the slow boat to china was a welcome relief.

After a few cocktails, Jessica took a little nap and let Zoë take over on iceberg duty.

Lake Powell, in all it’s iron-rich soily goodness. All eco-political viewpoints aside, this is one hell of an awesome man-made lake.

Once we made it onboard or home for the next few days we quickly set out on our routine…margaritas, raft floating, rocket-shooting, bon-fire watching and BBQ eating…this was going to be a rough trip indeed.

My nephew Mikey checking out the digs at Rainbow Bridge…also serving as a water mule…children are grand.

Rainbow Bridge.

A typical evening while house boating in Lake Powell.

Our trip seemed to end almost as fast as it started, as soon as Jessica got into the rhythm of things, we found ourselves packing for the voyage home.  Before we knew it, we were disembarking from the S.S. Gatley and were piling into the Murano for the stretch home.

I’m not sure why…but I love American desert Gas Stations…I always try to imagine what the life of the person who works inside must be like…and always seem to find the freshest beef jerkey on the planet…odd how that works out so far from anything remotely close to civilization.

Instead of heading back through Vegas for the ride home (read: doing anything to avoid Sunday traffic between Vegas and LA) we turned due south and aimed for Phoenix to visit Jessicas amazing aunt Deborah.

The red cliffs of southern Utah and Northern Arizona quickly gave way to the purples and oranges of the Sonoran desert and Jessica and I were treated to one of the most vivid sunsets we had ever seen.

Even at 80mph you can make out how glorious this way. If only my little iPhone camera had a tripod and time to take proper shots, I’d have something nicer to reflect this…but Jessica and I were late to one of the most incredible dinners of our lives.

Deborah was taking us (as a surprise to us) to Binkleys in Cave Creek (http://www.yelp.com/biz/binkleys-cave-creek ). An amazing (and expensive) restaurant that could easily qualify as 5-Star…and they didn’t even care that the nicest clothes I could muster up were a only-partially wrinkled T-Shirt, dirty shorts, and flip-flops…I love Phoenix.

This place was so nice it even had it’s own Wine Steward (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sommelier)…who led us all on a voyage of fermented grapes that still gets my mouth watering…Deborah is a saint for taking us here, we will never forget it. Talk about a rest stop from heaven!

Cherry Bombs – Molecular Gastronomy (cooking with nitrogen!!!!) these little babies exploded in your mouth (or in jessica’s case, all over her napkin when she missed her mouth)… but never fear the wait-staff was so amazing they instantly had another one from the chef ready to be enjoyed.

Some insanely amazing pork dish…served with the best wine I’ve ever had…that will remain top secret only to come out for special friends

After dinner, we crashed for the night at Hotel Del Deborah and started for home at our leisure the next day.

Driving with a dog on a road trip is probably one of the cooler things I never really understood until Jessica and I adopted Zoë.  She’s pretty rad, and doesn’t complain, but we try to make it a rule to stop every few hours to let her stretch and mark her little doggy territory…which in turn makes us stop, relax, and enjoy rest-stops along the way…something that really is becoming a lost art/appreciation.

While enjoying said stop, Zoë almost tangoed with, what I can only surmise was, a deadly caterpillar from outter-space. These mutant-large, neon, spiked, juice bugs were crawling all over the place…crazy! I wonder how they taste.

Cruising back home, we stopped alongside the Rock Tower – Desert Lookout along I-8.  Met some weird people, some crazy rock dogs, and finished out the drive home.

… I’m not sure there is an explanation for this…which I think is the point…but still….oddly terrifying once the sun goes down…as it had here.

This was a whirlwind of a trip, over 1200 miles in less than 5 days.  But Lake Powell truly is beyond words. A wonderful contrast and comparison to our time in the deserts of Namibia.

Be sure to check back soon, I’ll post some of the shots from the Nikon.

Windhoek Goose

Lilac Breasted Roller

Martial Eagle

African Hoopoe

Black Shouldered Kite

Southern yellow-billed Hornbill

African grey hornbill

Sociable Weaver

Mystery Bird

Crimson Breasted Shrike

Southern Pale Chanting Goshawk

Secretarybird

Suicidal Windhoek Giant Pigeons

No longer hungry black shouldered kite

Peacock

Swallow-tailed bee-eater

Tawny Eagle

Kudu

Wildebeast

Jackal

Mongoose

Zebra

Springbok

Rhino

Leopard

Almost Lunch (look for it)

Red Hartbeast

Jimmick

Freaking AWESOME

Yesterdays Lunch

Deep in the heart of Sossusvlei National Park, a lucky (and 4×4 inclined) few are able to catch a glimpse of one of the more eerie desert landscapes on Earth, the apt named Dead Vlei.

At the end of a long stretch of 1 lane tarred-road in the depths of Sossusvlei, there’s a small wooden sign that reads “4×4″ and a sandy trail leading out of sight.  Other than that, there’s really no indication of what the road promises.  Our map had a small dot that said “Dead Vlei” on it, and very little further description.

Armed with a thirst for adventure, we threw the Hilux into 4-wheel drive and we made our way…quickly realizing that the little wodden 4×4 sign was no exaggeration. Within minutes we were passing the skeletal remains of previous tourists, the broken down, half buried frames of lesser maneuvered vehicles, and other ominous signs that I don’t ever want to relive.  (Okay, that might be a SLIGHT exaggeration, but let it be known that if you ever find yourself in this corner of Namibia, and you turn back…I will lose no respect for you whatsoever.

Once we made it through the desert-sand-pass-through-hell, we arrived at a “parking lot” (read: firmer patch of sand with other cars parked on it) and a trail head marker.  From there it was just a small matter of trekking through the barren landscape on foot for another mile with nothing but the footsteps of the previous travelers to follow in front of you.

At the end of which we found this:

Trees that had been once thriving next to a desert stream that were cut off from their live-blood from a shifting sand dune. The result of which dried them out so quickly that they didn’t have a chance to die and rot away like normal trees. They were instantly preserved and saved in a coffin of sand and heat.

Pretty cool stuff.

It’s been a while, and my lovely wife gently reminded me that I forgot to post the most important photos from the trip!  For shame!

This was easily the best day of our trip. Our morning started chasing lions chasing zebras…an adrenaline rush that rivals skydiving…if you’ve done either, you know that the post adrenaline depression is enough to put most mortals into a coma. Our last day in the park and all we wanted to do was pull off the road, roll the windows down and take a nap in the African breeze (from inside the safety of our truck.)

So we lazily navigated toward the park exit, a good couple hours away.  At this point we had enjoyed so many intense thrills it was hard to imagine anything greater could be around the next corner.

Fully content with life, I approached the a small side road heading towards some unknown waterhole with little to no signs of life.  I half-heartedly looked over at Jim and asked if he thought it was worth the 15 minute detour to check out a waterhole that was more than likely empty.  The girls were already asleep in the back of the truck, the lucky jerks .  Jim, in true Jimmick form, quickly answered…”Suuuuure, why not”.

As was the case with most of this trip, that small decision, to opt for more adventure rather than more comfort or a break or anything else we all desperately needed…wound up being one of the greatest calls.  Immediately after turning onto the road way, we crawled up a little rolling hill and found a nice vantage point across a great plain.  At first I didn’t see anything, neither did Jim, we both just lazily scanned the horizon looking for any sign of spring-bok or jackal or whatever else we had seen hour after hour…and then Jessica’s 6th sense kicked in…she spotted it, of course, and immediately let out with a bolt of excitment “OH MY GOD…..ELEPHANTS!!!”

A group of about 7 juvenile and adult (no babies ) slowly appeared from a small depression in the plains.  We immediately parked the car, killed the engine and sat mesmerized as these gentle giants strolled up towards us and eventually made their way within 50 feet of us, across our path and off into the trees to do whatever it is Elephants do when nobody is watching.

Up to that point, we had only had the pleasure of watching these guys at sunset at the camp waterholes.  While that in it’s own right was incredible, something about catching them in the light of day, by ourselves, was one of the more magical moments in the trip.

As far as you can see, in every direction, it is just you and the country.  Unlike the deserts of the American Southwest however, there was an incredible amount of life everywhere you went.  Most people seem to freak out and think that there were lions and leopards around every corner, but if there were, they either saw us and hid or took off before we ever knew they were there. I’d just like to imagine there weren’t there, for my own sanity.

While we casually put the country behind us kilometer by kilometer, we tried to find every excuse to pull over and take in the country.  The few times we did were some of the only times we actually found other tourists on the roads which gave us a brief reminder that despite the solitude, this world is just too small to find yourself completely alone for any significant amount of time.  That being said, the people we found were some of the most intriguing and well traveled souls I’ve ever met.

Here’s one of said salty travelers passing us by on one of the state routes.  It was pretty neat to only see another soul every few hours or so, and generally it was only if they had stopped along side the road to change a flat tire or write their name in the sand. We would slow down, make sure there were cool, and generally keep on moving along.

Jim and I tried to find any and every excuse we could to get out of the truck and play photographer.

Typically we would be motoring along and one of the group would say something like “oh hey, ….look at that fence”.

20 seconds later Jim and I would be bounding across some barren grass field, cameras in hand and looking like little kids gallivanting to take silly photos like this:

A few high fives and comparisons later and we’d stroll back to the car, or get distracted by a tree and snap more shots…

It’s funny looking back through the photos and forcing myself to take a real good look at these.  When I took them it was more to force the point of making myself take in the surrounds and actually stop driving for a few moments.  I never thought I’d look back and realize that the subtlety of the trip was captured in these shots.  The zeitgeist (google it) of Namibia, if you will.  And I’ve found that these have become as cherished as some of my “big 5″ animal shots.

Were it not for the power line overhead and the fence line below, you’d think you were all alone on the planet looking at scenery like this.

Really though, all this solitude just added to the joy and pleasure we found in meeting others sharing in their own version of the journey.  The bars in every town were packed with people enjoying a frosty beer after a long days, lonely, drive.  The hotels and hostels all had parking lots with cars/trucks/donkey pulled carts caked in namibian dust.

The phrase, “life isn’t about the destination, it’s the journey” is something you fully come to terms with in Namibia; even when your destinations include seeing lions and rhinos and elephants.

Best of friends, with complete strangers, if but just for a moment.

…

If Namibia taught me one thing, it was, without a doubt, Slow down and enjoy the ride.

One of my favorite shots from the trip.  Taken in Etosha National Park.

There’s about 8 lions visible in this shot of the pride, we wound up seeing 2 or 3 more once the pride moved around a little bit. These guys put on a remarkable display of raw aggression and sophisticated tact and strategy. Even with a tremendous amount of respect and fear of these creatures before we encountered them I found that after I had watched them hunt some prey, I had completely underestimated how elegantly terrifying these cats can be.

We first came upon the pride of lions slowly awakening from the nighttime antics early in the morning.  Here’s one of the females casually stalking some gemsbok a few hundred yards out of the frame.  It’s funny because we had been looking for the pride for about 20 minutes before we actually spotted them.  Looking at this photos, the silhouettes stand out immediately, but with the naked eye, these guys were practically impossible to see.  We must have stared right at them, but they stand/stalk so still that we didn’t realize what we were looking at until Jessica finally spotted one moving.

After an hour or so, the pride lazily strolled down to the waterhole to lay out and get a nice tan going while waiting for their next meal to present itself.  We watched them here for another 30 minutes or so and were just about to call it a day when one of the most profoundly humbling real life dramas unfolded right in front of us.

Enter stage right: 300+ zebras. Something no Zoo or Wild Animal Park can ever capture, a herd of lion bait in the hundreds moving in sync like a school of fish.  This was something so larger than life that, for but a brief moment, I completely forgot about the pride of lions to my left.  Initially our thoughts were all turned to compassion for these innocent zebras walking right into the face (actually 8 of them) of danger. But with every step closer, not to the water, but instead straight to the lions, we started to realized that these zebra knew exactly what was going on and as stealthy as these lions were, nobody was being fooled….yet anyhow.

Step by agonizing step, the herd moved in on the pride. Like a sick and twisted game of russian roulette and jack-in-the box combined, the zebra would shuffle one zebra closer until finally the lions sprung their trap.

In an instant, every zebra in the herd got the memo and bolted as if one unified animal.

The lions gave a half-hearted attempt at getting a nice table side snack for their wonderful little poolside lounge, but one got the notion that the zebra were just toying with the lions to flush them out of their hiding spots and get a good idea of where their mortal enemies were for the day.

At this moment we all thought we had seen the best of the action, a near miss. And were about to begin our long journey for the day, but the oddest thing happened.  While the majority of the pride was watching as the zebra ran around like a bunch of jack-asses, 2 of the lions split off in the opposite direction to flank the herd.  This brought them on a direct intercept path with us, and the rest of the pack of mesmerized safari-goers.

Jim snapped me out of my trance, told me to get my ass back in the window I was hanging out of and to move the car.  I plotted my intercept course and quickly rolled the hilux to the opposite end of the parking area and snagged a front row seat for what turned out to be an extreme close up of these massive/expert hunters.  We wound up being within 20 feet of these cats with nothing between us but sweat, fear and a healthy dose of respect.

The hunters on the move:

This image still haunts me.  The face looks so evil its crazy. It’s funny, I say that “the face looks evil” and wonder where I gained my understanding of what “evil” looks like.  The first thing I can think of is Disney movies, and then it dawns on me, the artists for disney movies (i.e. the lion king) came to these same places and watched these same animals, and captured the same look in their depictions. Seriously though…Disney taught me at a very young age, this is not a face you want to pet. Bad kitty.

Watching these 2 cats saunter by us, unphased by the proximity to humans and cars and cameras, felt like it transpired in about 2 seconds. In reality their slow march of fear took about 5-10 minutes.  By the time they had passed I realized that they were again going to intersect the road leading into the vantage point we were currently packed into with some 40 other people crammed into their own cars.  About 10 seconds before the other cars/busses/trucks realized this, I was pulling into reverse and rolling for our next vantage point.  I got there just in time to see the lions and plot the best spot to get a shot of them without scaring them off.  In about 40 seconds I had moved the car, killed the engine and was lining up my shot.  Right when I got the lions in my frame, they disappeared from sight in the 3 foot high grass.  Instantly the excitement we were all sharing turned to fear, where the hell did they go…are they stalking us now?! It was at this point, we saw a small group of zebra, about 5, (the slackers) trying to catch up to the rest of the herd.  They were trotting along head on to the waiting and completely hidden lions.

This was going to be epic.  Unlike their buddies in the herd of 400 down by the water, these idiots had no clue what they were walking into.

A hushed silence fell over the group. Our cameras all trained on the last place we had seen cats, Jessica got her video camera out and simultaneously as she pressed the shutter, the lions pounced and just missed snagging these zebra by mere feet.

I’ve never seen a zebra scared so stupid, but these guys probably dropped a ten pound nugget behind them as they bolted for their lives.

These cats were the strongest, quickest, stealthiest monsters I have ever had the pleasure of observing.  Even the best 1080p High Def, 3D, LED, backlit, wall-mounted, 7 channel dolby surround Discovery Channel HD special documenting this won’t give you NEAR the rush it was to watch a hunt ALMOST result in a kill.

Best thing I have ever seen in my life.

To most of you, this photo looks like a hyena…or possibly a jackal…but you would be mistaken…sort of. An aardwolf (like an aardvark) eats termites and is basically part hyena, part jackal….and almost entirely impossible to get a glimpse of.

When I took this photo, the group had no idea what we had seen and we spent the better part of an hour trying to figure it out. It wasn’t until some time later that Jim was able to ID the animal using his iPad field guide app.  In so doing, we discovered just how lucky we were to catch a glimpse of such a wonderfully shy and elusive creature.  That, plus the fact that we had been driving 100km/hr down the same stretch of road for countless hours:

Staring at grasslands like this:

Spotting an animal that has adapted to live in this environment, camouflaged, no less, is hard enough… Spotting an actual Aardwolf was rather unbelievable and pretty freaking awesome.

We later realized just how cool we were when we found ourselves talking with a guide at the Cheetah Conservation Fund who had lived in Namibia for 20+ years and had never seen one.  This guy works with Cheetahs for a living and was jealous that we caught a glimpse of an ant-eating dog.

Cool stuff.